ABSTRACT
This chapter sheds light on Russia’s multilateralism with specific reference to BRICS. It tries to understand BRICS from a Eurasian perspective rather than the dominant western frameworks of multilateralism. More than rule-based, BRICS is an issue-based organisation. The rules of engagement over sovereignty, democracy, co-operation and negotiations are clearly distinct here. Marek Rewizorski has compared the complex multilateral characters of the EU and BRICS and he considers the EU to be “normative”. This begs the question: Is BRICS “non-normative” because the norms are non-Western? This chapter presents an alternate perspective on multilateralism by taking the case of Russia, and the way it understands BRICS. It will build upon the works of scholars like Anastasia Kovaleva, particularly “BRICS as an Alternative to Western Hegemony” has also been used to extend the central narrative of this chapter.
